Long Dated IPAs on Shelves

I believe that hop-forward stuff is technically out of code at three months, but I'm not entirely sure who that's on to check those dates. I don't think its unreasonable to tell someone at the store that their "XYZ Brewing" IPAs are out of code. I think they'd be happy you notified them. They could get their rep in to restock (or maybe its not worth keeping that beer around).

If you're telling someone their beer is old and they check the codes and say, "Yeah these were canned five weeks ago" and you're dismissing it as old then it's a different story.

 

This is a very sad story and its happening everywhere. Theres a fantastic store near me that stocks a ton of really great stuff. They do have good turn over, and they always h ave fresh beer, but ill look here and there and see some crazy stuff. I was about to buy a Toppling Goliath 4 pack once, turned it over and it was dated almost a YEAR ago. Ive gone in many stores and just seen warm 4 packs sitting around that are months and months old. I feel bad for these guys as anyone who cares about hoppy beer at all will never touch any of this. Maybe they just rely on people that dont know any better.

 

Old dates have always been a problem with IPA's but it seems like its becoming more and more prevalent with hop forward IPA's. Stuff that used to fly off the shelves stays longer and longer. There's just too many options and there's only so many variations of certain beers you can have before getting a bit bored. I remember SingleCut used to fly off the shelves and I'd always run in to buy whatever was the latest variation. I can't recall the last one I bought, not because their quality went down but because there are so many other options. It's the same thing with all of these brands, how many more street names are there that Trillium can use?

I think the days of craft beer stores having every possible brand under the sun might be coming to an end. Maybe its time to curate the beer selections a little more. Maybe the $4-6 single can prices need to come down a bit. I've always thought that's the next step for someone like Tree House. Keep up volume by lowering prices. Maybe that's what their warehouse will be. They'll crank out a ton of Julius at a much lower price point and just sell straight out of that warehouse. Keep selling smaller batch beers at the $4-6 price point out of the taproom. A $60-70 case of Julius vs the typical $96 would be interesting. I'm no longer interested in paying $4-6 for a beer if its just slightly different than the thousand other IPA's I've had.

 

I'd be all for a more limited selection but more fresh options personally I always find myself checking dates and more often than not passing on old beers

 

Just to chime in from a retailer point of view, sometimes retailers are stuck on the freshness front. A very popular IPA brewed in Maine just came from the distributor to us and it was a month and a half old. Distributors work on a first in, first out method, so that's what is available to all retailers in our market. We are then faced with the choice of carrying 1.5 month old beer, or not carrying that IPA in general. We pull IPA's at 3 months old, so that gives us 45 days to move the case.

 

I completely get that I feel bad honestly sometimes when I go in and don't buy anything it's gotta be a tough market outside of macros and the casuals to actually appease craft beer people

 

When you pull a beer, where does it go? Possibly a naive question as a consumer ...

 

beer heaven

 

This has been going on forever.

 

the distributor/self distributed brewery replaces it with fresh beer generally

 

You’ll have nothing and like it!

 

Eventually. Maybe. If the brewery/distributor agrees with the best by code window and the distro salesman hasn't used all his allotted return credit, etc..

And sometimes only if it is a full case to go back, depending on your local legal/distributor policies (self distributing breweries are more likely to offer partial case credits/swaps).

 

We have the same on Cape Cod for about a year now - tons of overstock of NEIPAs from breweries all over New England in every shop. Litrally pallets of stuff sitting outside the coolers. It's not hard for craft fans to get the hang of it, they check dates and go for the fresh stuff, it's that simple.

The market for hazy IPA is just way too saturated. I'm sure that this has been part of the issue (over saturation) with some of the recent brewery closures. I know three guys who own/run competing bottle shops in the area. Several times I've been in and seen the interactions between sales/distro guys and the owners. I've even had these distro guys try to make a hard sell on me in the shops, and watched them do it to other customers. I don't blame doing that if they are struggling, and I really feel bad for the breweries that can't make it through this era.

I'm sure many of us have had visions/dreams of taking home brewing to the next level, scaling up, getting a canning line, etc. I think it's a little too late to get into the game. Hell I thought that it was too late in 2016. The crazy thing is that a lot of these breweries closing down would probably thrive in other parts of the country, or in Europe, etc.

Best of luck to the breweries struggling.

 

I don't think its too late to get into the game to have a successful brewery but the definition of what a successful brewery is has changed or at least it should. You can't start a brewery and expect it to be a huge money making venture. Its more like the restaurant business now, lots open and lots close. A successful restaurant is one that makes the owners good money and stays in business. There's the rare restaurant that opens multiple locations or becomes a chain.

Distribution shouldn't be your goal, at least not you immediate goal. Mystic's closure clearly showed that distribution without volume is a losing game or at least not enough to grow on. Location is key, again Mystic followed what was the old model of opening in an industrial area without thought to taproom traffic. There are plenty of small breweries doing extremely well because they've opened in an area without a ton of competition and with enough local traffic to support itself. We all laughed at Lanigan when he opened Lord Hobo and went all in for distribution. He clearly understood that to succeed at distribution you need scale (either that or it was dumb luck). He also opened in an area that has enough traffic to support a successful taproom. You really can't follow the start big model now given the market saturation as you mentioned but a small taproom in the right location can certainly succeed.

I'd guess we are going to see fewer and fewer breweries opening up that get into distribution unless its on a small scale. Breweries won't get big unless they really produce something different and amazing. We probably won't see the number of breweries go down and probably will even see them go up, albeit at a slower pace. The number of different breweries might go down at beer shops and maybe (hopefully) we'll see a little more variety from these breweries. More non IPA's. For breweries to succeed in distribution I think we'll also need to start seeing more discounts on volumes. If singles stay at the $4-6 rate then 4 packs, 6 packs, etc.. need to start coming down in cost to encourage moving volumes. Things have to change to continue the growth. There is no bubble but there's certainly changes ahead IMHO.

 

I don't think that area gets a lot of traffic. It's in the middle of nowhere in Woburn.

I think people KNEW to go there because of the name, I don't they're stopping in because they were in the area.

 

The immediate area definitely doesn't get much traffic but it is more broadly right in the middle of a very busy area that's easy to travel to compared to Malden/Everett/Somerville, especially for people west of 93 and north of 128.

I wish I liked their beer more because it really is the easiest brewery for me to get to from where I live in Medford or from Reading/Wilmington/Andover where I have a lot of friends and family.

I agree that the name certainly helps though since they're not physically on a well traveled road as you mentioned.

ETA: I wonder how much of an after work crowd they get from the super dense Cummings Park area right up the road?

 

@meefmoff Got what I meant. You are correct it doesn't get traffic passing by the brewery but there is a lot of traffic in the area and its easy to get to.

 

I agree with you. I have friends making beer (I won't mention the brands), that sort of bandwagon onto the canning/neipa trend. I watched what drove that idea. And on the opposite side of the coin I have a friend in Europe starting a barrel project driven on pure passion - with small runs of 750s, hand painted labels, and a beautiful story behind each beer and it's local/organic ingredients. He can make a damn fine VT style pale ale, but the focus and product is the unique stuff he can bring to the table. I have no doubt the second guy will be successful.

 

This thread is the reason I pretty much make a monthly beer run and fill up my beer fridge straight from one or multiple of my favorite breweries. I stock up and do it again the next month. It's a pain in the ass checking dates at a bottle shop.